Question

Which of these excerpts from the Iliad by Homer uses an epic simile?

Good heaven! what active feats yon artist shows!
What skilful divers are our Phrygian foes!
Mark with what ease they sink into the sand!
Pity that all their practice is by land!

. . .
Then rushing sudden on his prostrate prize,
To spoil the carcase fierce Patroclus flies:
Swift as a lion, terrible and bold,
That sweeps the field, depopulates the fold;

Now flaming from the zenith, Sol had driven
His fervid orb through half the vault of heaven;
While on each host with equal tempests fell
The showering darts, and numbers sank to hell

For lo! the god in dusky clouds enshrined,
Approaching dealt a staggering blow behind.
The weighty shock his neck and shoulders feel;
His eyes flash sparkles, his stunn’d senses reel

Answer 1

Then rushing sudden on his prostrate prize,

To spoil the carcase fierce Patroclus flies:

Swift as a lion, terrible and bold,

That sweeps the field, depopulates the fold;

Answer 2

The answer:

Then rushing sudden on his prostrate prize,

To spoil the carcase fierce Patroclus flies:

Swift as a lion, terrible and bold,

That sweeps the field, depopulates the fold;

An epic simile is a figurative language or a metaphor that uses comparisons to describe an event, someone, a place, etc. by using the words "like", "as" or "as in" and that is developed over several lines of verse, and which it's more commonly found in epic poems (The Illiad is a good example of it). Its aim is to make the writing more colorful and interesting and serve as decoration.

The excerpt uses simile to describe the character as bold and terrible, the word "as" is key to identify it as a simile and not other literary devices. Here are the lines that best illustrate the use of the epic simile:

"Swift as a lion, terrible and bold,

That sweeps the field, depopulates the fold"